The Horror of Queen's Crest
by DominoMags
Summary: Nestled in the Northern UK countryside lay a new institute, offering jobs and promises of bold new discoveries. Unfortunately, the Doctor and her friends uncover a darker truth beneath the surface, along with a new face bearing an old name and an older grudge. All the while, creatures are stirring and people are missing. What Horrors lay dormant in Queen's Crest Institute?


The Queen's Crest Institute sat nestled in the hills of the Northern countryside, a thoroughly modern building in contrast with its rural surroundings. The full moon shone down like the blaring light of a surgery ward.

The room in which the doctor operated was dimly lit, papers stacked neatly in the sterile laboratory. Embryonic beasts sat in vials and well filed folders labeled "Project Artifice" were nestled in their cabinets.

"Now now. Looks like you have awoken. This is unfortunate. You'll probably scream now. None of that however. I need your full cooperation.

A wheezing noise could be heard in the distance, shaking the scientist's attention as he scribbled in his lab journal.

"Oh typical. I suppose it's this song and dance."

Dr. Caitlin O'Mara adjusted his glasses and started to take his lab coat off. He paused however.

"I almost forgot. I am afraid we reached the end of this stage."

Eyes pleaded as the person on the slab struggled to speak, mouth silenced by the mask over their mouth. They assumed some sort of gas would flood their lungs, ending it all. Or maybe, just maybe, they would be free to go.

A needle jabbed into the man's awaiting veins, flooding his system and sending it into overdrive.

He screamed as his pupils dilated. He could feel his muscles morph and his bones creak.

"Now then. Let's meet our guest." the professor adjusted his spectacles and took them off, removing a crown like device from his head as the test subject writhed and screamed behind him.

X

"Ah! Hang on a tic...That's funny. Not proper funny...like...unsettling funny. It was probably nothing."

Yaz looked at her blonde friend with concern. From the way the mad woman was scrubbing her face, this was most likely far from nothing.

"You ok, Doctor?"

"Yeah. Just a bit giddy is all. Got a bad feeling.,

"I take it we're investigating then?" A young man of 19 fiddled with a fidget cube he had found in the TARDIS study, from the time Lord's personal stash.

"Gold star for Graham! Or points. I forget. We'll go with points. I think I have my last gold star to Yaz."

"Typical" Ryan grinned as he willed his eyes. Has merely nudged his arm with an "alright. That's enough." motion.

The eccentric woman shrugged as she walked past the console and her friends. With her coat on and her pockets filled with the usual arsenal of tricks and gadgets, it was time for the next adventure. Team TARDIS was at the ready, following her into any scrapes, come what may. The woman smiled and flopped her arms to the side with a satisfying thump.

"Right. Let's get a shift on!"

X

The TARDIS' familiar wheezing echoed through the green valley they were about to land in, settling on what seemed to be a bed of peat moss. Right off the bad, the proprietor of the space time vessel was telling her friends a story.

"So you had this umbrella lying around and used it to tap on your friend's door? The Charitable Earth Lady?" Ryan inquired. It was still hard to believe his friend was a man in a previous life, let alone several previous lives. Still, he wasn't one to judge that sort of thing. Besides, she was an alien. Like, a proper one.

Has, having seen all matter of time space phenomena alongside her childhood friend and his granddad, was taking it in stride.

"Yeah. She left her favorite jacket. Figured I'd return it. It took a while to explain things. I was a little Scottish Bloke when we first met. Repeating patterns I guess."

The group made their way up a cobblestone path, another bit of rustic charm to conflict with the unsettling modernity of the building.

"Hello, welcome to Queen's Crest Institute. Dr. Redmond here. Do you have an appointment Ms…"

"Dr. Rosalind Tyler. Friends call me Rose. These are my associates, Ryan, Yasmin, and Graham. My credentials should check out, yeah?"

Dr. Redmond looked over the piece of paper the blonde woman had presented, stroking her chin incredulously. Still, everything seemed to check out.

"It says here you're from UNIT? Shame they were shuttered. We've had a few prospects come here looking for work. Not surprising. Science leads here after all."

The Doctor unleashed a goofy grin of self satisfaction as she walked inside, bouncing with every step. Hopefully it wasn't anything too bad, but that was hardly the case with these institutes and organizations. 3W, Torchwood, the one with the Krynoids. There was always some fishy business in need of sorting. Something about this Dr. Redmond seemed off, but she had been wrong before.

A man in a lab coat walked out, short curly rust-colored hair barely reaching his shoulders and parted down the middle. His hazel eyes met the Doctor's as they shook hands

"Ah yes. Hello. Afraid you caught us on a bit of a busy day. My name is Professor O'Mara. Caitlin O'Mara."

The companions seemed to relax around the professor but there was something unsettlingly familiar in the pit of the Doctor's hearts.

"I'm afraid that is enough of my tour. I must be getting back to our top project. I would give you more info but I am afraid it is classified for now. I'll send you all a copy when it is published in the latest scientific journals. Excuse me."

It had to be her. The woman was dressed so ridiculously that it could be nobody else. This one had particularly awful fashion sense as expected but at least there were no cats or question marks present. Either way, the trap was set.

"There you are, you insipid fool."

X

The deeper they explored the institute, the more suspicious it became. Workers became more automatic, almost animatronic in how they toiled away. The labs became emptier the further in, and that was before the "Authorized personnel only" sign.

"No worries, gang. With what I've got, we're always authorized."

"Not exactly reassuring."

"Nobody likes a killjoy, Graham. Now that phrase takes me back. So do those mechanical workers. Something is definitely fishy about this institute. I'd say split up but we might be stronger together on this one."

"Excuse me. I am afraid this tour is unauthorized. I shall have to ask you to get away from this area.

"I am very sorry. You have seen too much."

"Jesus, Doc! You killed her!"

"I didn't I swear."

"Afraid that was me. It's a shame. I rather liked her. Still if she has an off switch, perhaps I can install one in you...Doctor."

Dr. Redmond collapsed in a heap, her programming shutting down as she hit the floor like a Rag doll. Ryan was disturbed by how uncanny valley she looked in death. The Doctor would have asked him to show respect but they were stopped by a familiar figure golf clapping sternly. He proceeded to strut forward in an authoritative manner, almost feminine in his stride

"Well that was fast. Almost anticlimactic. I see you have upgraded, Doctor. If only you had become less meddlesome and sanctimonious."

"Oh bigger. Was really convinced it was Dr. Redmond"

"No. She is merely a...companion. That is what you call these humans you keep as pets, yes? She is a useful assist and occasional volunteer. A surprisingly high intellect for an Earthling. She served nicely.

The creatures skulked in the hallway of the facility, hovering between life and death. One in particular did not have a coherent face. It cycled between several possibilities, everyone hard to decipher, like an obscured photograph in real time.

Guttural animal noises escaped their throats, the groans and bellows echoing through the horrifically pristine walls of the facility.

"Leave the humans. It's the woman I want. Her companions might be useful subjects. As for this one, we have some unfortunate catching up to do."

X

The Doctor awoke on a slab

"Which one are you? Not enough pageantry… Are you the Master again? I was hoping it would be Missy. I liked her most."

"Really, Doctor. Don't insult me like that. Now hush. I grew tired of your prattle a regeneration cycle ago."

"You're not the Monk are...wait...Ushas?"

"We both know I haven't answer to that name in a very long time."

"Queen's Crest… I really had to think about that one. Rather daft, isn't it?"

"Talkative as always. Good to see a change in gender hasn't made you any less insufferable. You do realize I have you strapped to a table right? I would appreciate you not comparing me to that megalomaniacal plodder. "

"Looks like we both had a shift. Any plans on letting me out and telling me in on your plan?"

"That's the third strike. I really am growing tired of this. At least your outfit doesn't give me a migraine in this form. Not totally at least."

"Seeing as how I'm going to be your lab rat, and I don't intend to eat our teacher's cat like your experiments at academy...it doesn't really matter."

Why was it always mad scientists or evil former classmates (or teachers in some cases)? Why did it have to be both tonight. What's more, these shambling abominations of temporal possibility were a callback to a dark period of the Doctor's life: the Time War. While some renegade were recruited for frontline duty or, more often than not, secret missions, others were utilized for behind the scenes work when Gallifrey came to call.

The professor took off his glasses and gave a haughty harumph.

"Are you going to offer to be my plucky young assistant and hand me test tubes? You certainly look the part. "

Yes. That's good. Keep talking, Rani. Just a little longer so much for "no prattle."

AAAAAH

Searing pain tore through the Doctor's arm, her face comforting in pain. It was hard to think of a plan like this.

"I keep telling you not to insult my intelligence and yet here you are, doing it repeatedly. I might have failed against you in the past, but what is science but trial and error. The War really opened that up for me. I might not have been on the front lines as much as you and your favorite stalker, but I ended up creating things that even I was afraid of. I suppose I found out how Davros felt… without the overwhelming inferiority of course."

He was making this way too easy. He was more like the Master than he would care to admit.

"Anyway, that's enough. Back to work. I have a lot of catching up to do and new body or not, you're still the nuisance you always were."

The Doctor was running through calculations as fast as she could, agony nagging her every step of the way.

"I've dealt with worse. Come on Doctor. Think. Think."

She had been in plenty of death traps before. Sure she could use her sonic in the past but she had also made due without. When words and sonic technology wouldn't work, there had to be a new strategy. One requiring tact and guile.

The Doctor kept struggling in hopes of flipping the table over. If she could convince her foe that she was too stupid to live but to valuable to kill, maybe she could exploit an opportunity to escape.

No. The table was welded to the floor. That wouldn't work either. She was back to her words, but what could she do? Namedrop her way out of things?

"Wait...I got it. I'm so thick. I'll have to smack my forehead later when I can use my hands."

The time lord thought back to her encounters with Harry Houdini. She had managed escape acts before. If she could win a bet against him or escape being drowned as a witch, she could do this.

She shimmied her hands, pulling as much as she could any time the Rani went to get something. She had worked herself into a sweat and the venom was certainly giving her a fever.

"Perspiration can make for a handy lubricant in times like these. Just have to. AAAAAAAAAH!"

Her hands ached, the pain still coursing through her entire being. It was enough to distract her from the scraping and chafing as she finally pulled her hands free. Panting heavily and feeling a bit of blood trickle down the sides of her hands, the Doctor painted and grimaced as she undid her leg harnesses. Good thing the Rani had gone off to gather some more materials from elsewhere in his TARDIS.

"Really, Doctor? Surprised it took you this long." the rival time lord sighed, holding a Lakertyan Laser rifle at the struggling blonde.

"Bugger."

Working faster, the Doctor hurried up, barely dodging a stun pulse as she managed to free herself.

Falling to the ground, the time lord remembered everything she learned about laboratory protocol and chucked it at the window as she knocked various vials off the shelves in the control room to cover her tracks. She slammed her hands on the central controls in a panic until the door opened up.

Miraculously, despite the toll on her body, she escaped, though not without pursuit. The Rani stayed behind, knowing that his old schoolmate's would return. If not for the antidote, then for her effects.

"I can't believe that worked." the Doctor gasped, running through corridors like a clunsybemu fighting off a tranq dart

"Now to find the gang."

X

Breaking free was step one but it was hardly cause for celebration. Male or not, this Professor. O'Mara was still very much the Rani. Tyrants were one thing. Immoral professors were another. Rogue members of her people bent on evil deeds were something else routine for the time lady.

"Just my luck. I strike all three tonight. Right. Gotta find my fam!"

Her arm tingled, the venom in her begins creeping upward. Somehow this felt worse than that time dying over and over again in a confession dial or having one of her hearts cut from her chest.

The Doctor lumbered through the hallway, clutching her arm. She cursed herself for leaving her favorite coat in the lab. Was it a lab? It could have been a TARDIS. That was just like her...him. It didn't matter. She could always return but time was of the essence.

She really did wish she have it though. It had her favorites: a bag of jelly babies, some custard creme, a packet of jammy dodgers and…

The Doctor smacked her forehead.

"My Sonic."

She couldn't possibly go back for it. It was too dangerous. This whole institute was, though having just escaped the Rani, the Doctor wasn't ready to battle her old schoolmates just yet. There were still friends to find. Hopefully they weren't already experimented on.

The thought filled the Gallifreyan's mind with dread, the echoes of past tragedies ringing through her skull.

She ran through the corridors like a penguin on fire. No. That was a lifetime ago. She could come up with a better analogy after she got out of this. She needed to find her friends. They were no doubt locked up and she needed some clever improvisation when she came across them.

"Hang on. Do any of you have anything metallic on you? Or any electronic devices? Cell Phone might work."

"Yeah but you can't have it. I remember last time."

"Ryan, we're locked up in this small space without a way out. The Doc can fix your phone."

The young man sighed and took out his smartphone while Tax took out her keys. The Doctor looked through the round window Inn the door and gave a thumbs up. Fishing around her body, she found a small round device in her trouser pockets.

"Good. Take off the back of the phone and hold it against the door so the battery is touchin'..." The doctor traced a finger and knocked on a part of the door near a somewhat bulky yet sophisticated looking box.

"There."

Ryan and Has did as instructed and the Doctor placed the round device against the spot she ranged on. After a couple minutes, it dunked and Ryan's phone sparked, causing him to reflexively drop it. The screen cracked and the battery slid towards Yaz's feet.

"Man, my phone plan is not gonna cover this." the dyspraxic youth shook his head.

"I can fix it. Don't worry. Now let's go. I have to catch you up on things." The Doctor hurried her companions to follow but were greeted by a distant bellow, the source approaching at a decent pace.

"On second thought, let's debrief here. Think of a plan. No rush." The blonde winced. She closed the door behind her, but not after claiming her device. It was dead as a football but it could make for a handy fridge magnet at least.

X

"Rani? Like the Hindu word for Queen? Can't say it suits this bloke."

"Honestly I think renegade Time lords just like picking titles that sound cool and important. Like Rani or Master or Corsair or-"

"Doctor?" Graham chimed in, drawing an incredulous look from the Blonde.

"Oi! I resemble that remark."

"So why Queen? He doesn't look the part."

"He wasn't always a he. Kind of like I wasn't always a she. Back in our academy days and really most of the time I knew her, the Rani was a girl. A brilliant scientist. Unfortunately, like a lot of my friends back then, she wasn't exactly well adjusted. Fed our professor's cat to enlarged lab rats. Went on to be ruler of a whole planet."

"So she...he...is like this Master you told us about? Missy?"

"Yes and no. The gender switch and whole planetary conquest things are pretty similar...the Rani is different though. It was like a means to an end for her, not the end goal. Everything was an experiment, some mystery to unravel and things like ethics or morals were just hindrances...I wouldn't call her the most twisted of my people or even of the mad scientist types I have faced, but that makes him no less deadly. That's why we have to stop him and get out of here."

A lumbering beast approached, face comforting in horror and switching between several faces. The Doctor had seen things like this, back during the war. Oh how she had hoped she had moved past it. After all, her people were back. Gallifrey was saved. Alas, scars ran deep, actions often had consequences, and time had a habit of catching up to you.

The beast, as it drew closer, was noticeably more grotesque, sporting asymmetrical reptilian features, a hybrid of dinosaur, time lord, and human cadaver. Its brain pulsed through a thin layer of skin, punctuated by a continuously fluctuating mask of macabre horror and tags.

"Right. I suppose I don't have to remind you to run."

"Don't have to tell me twice."

The Doctor grabbed Yaz's hand without hesitation, both their bodies sparking to life with adrenaline as they fled the abomination stalking them.

"Well I'm not sleeping tonight." Ryan panted. A ladder led down into a sub basement and the party climbed one by one down.

"C'mon 've got this. I'll keep guard while you climb down. You've got him if he falls, right Doc?"

"Sure thing, Graham. Please stop calling me Doc though."

"No guarantees. Hurry up. I think our friend is nearly here. Looks like we couldn't give him the slip for long."

The beast let out a soul piercing roar, unearthly and unsettling in its cadence. 1000 possible agonies echoed with its every bellow as its claws scraped against the smooth metallic floor.

"Yeah. Definitely not sleeping tonight. Got it. Your turn, grandad."

The creature lunged with its one strong arm, muscles rippling as if it was ever changing beneath the creative's dingy gray skin. Its grip was strong as it pulled at Graham, fingers digging into the skin of his neck as it tried to get a good hold. The scream was deafening as the older man fought to escape. Between the worried shouts of his comrades and the bloodcurdling noises admitted by his assailant, he could barely hear him think or even speak.

"DOC, CAN'T THAT MAGIC WANT OF YOURS DO SOMETHING!"

"IT'S NOT ON ME AT THE MOMENT! I'M TRYING TO SORT IT OUT! HANG ON!"

The quartet of adventurers scrambled down and shut the hatch beneath them. Unfortunately for them, their exit strategy was riskier than expected.

upon surveying their new surroundings, the former- last of the timelords had an announced t to make.

"I hate to alarm you but this...not sure if it is a morgue per se. These creatures aren't dead per se...it's like Michael Crichton and Mary Shelly collaborated. Both lovelies folks by the way. The stories Mary could tell in particular."

"Focus, Doctor."

"Right...so this is where those creatures are stored. Embryos, gestating fetuses… fully developed specimens...we can sneak out of here and grab my coat. My sonic's in there. I can ruin the Rani's day after that."

"Sssh. Beware the claws that catch."

The doctor tapped gently on the wall, time coming to a standstill. Her blood ran cold when an answer came from the other side.

"Do you always quote Through the Looking Glass."

"I have a signed copy in the TARDIS library. Now shush please." The woman cautioned.

It was too late however, as taps became thuds and scrapes.

"Right. Who wants to scarper?"

The TARDIS team all raised their hands at once and ran through the narrow area, trying not to trip over each other or get caught. A few clawed hands reached out, grabbing at the four, one even managing to grab Graham and drag him away.

"It's grabbed me! Stay away you swine!"

Without missing a beat, the Doctor climbed over Has and Ryan, the latter helping her to fight off the assaulting creature and free Graham.

"Quickly! Up the ladder. We have to go find the TARDIS!"

"Why is it always ladders?" Ryan asks himself before he makes it up with some effort. With everyone up, the Doctor did her best to seal the hatch manually, with assistance from her companions. The monsters (which the Doctor had dubbed the abstract out of lack of better ideas)

"This way, I think. Follow me" the team ran through the labyrinthine facilities until they reached a large laboratory.

"Hang on, Doctor. This isn't the TARDIS" Yaz observed.

"I'll catch up. I need to get my stuff and make sure the Rani doesn't catch up. You three need to evacuate everyone. I have to do this."

The TARDIS fam went off to complete their tasks. Yaz was hesitant to leave the Doctor behind, but she ran to catch up with Ryan and Graham.

Fumbling through shelves once more, the Doctor looked for the antidote. She had fought off the venom so far, but her earlier excursions had probably done nothing to slow its spread as black tendrils branched off under her skin.

"Looking for this, I take it." The "Professor" smugly held up the vial,

"Yeah. Trade ya." The Gallifreyan meddler threw a jarred dinosaur embryo at the man's face and did a running slide to grab the vial. Using the moment if distraction, she pilfered the antidote and downed it hastily. It took a while, but the effects kicked in soon enough.

Thank you. Really hit the spot. Now then. I have an experiment of my own. Care to help me?

Dashing to the console with a publish smile, he Doctor pressed as many buttons as she could, seemingly recklessly. Anything she could do to stop the Rani would be grand. There were no Tetraps or living Dinosaurs available, nor were there any students on hand. Not even the cast of East Enders.

"What are you doing you fool?" The Rani knew the Doctor would return. It was a matter of time, and what was time to a time lord, or science without patience.

"Oh Ushas, you should know how this goes by now. It's me."

"No!"

The Doctor waggled her eyebrows and threw a switch as a cloister bell went off. She hurriedly found her belongings and ran for the doors, exiting the Rani's TARDIS and setting a device on the wall near some storage tanks.

"Can't have any naughty experiments getting loose...I really wish it didn't come to this." She said solemnly. She really didn't want to commit genocide. She told herself that their existence was hardly what one would call living, and that they were dangerous, but that didn't make it sit any easier in her hearts.

As the Rani made his pursuit, he had realized what the Doctor had done and ran back to his TARDIS.

"I really hate to do this. Really Really do. I'm sorry." The blonde stated forlornly as she activated her sonic screwdriver. On the Rani's console, a stray device sat on the underside, close to the floor.

Receiving a signal, it overrode the systems and shut the door.

"You can't do this!" the man known as "Professor O'mara" hissed in anger.

"No. You weren't listening. I said I wish I didn't have to. I never said I couldn't.

And thus the Doctor hurried away hryskly, her coat. Bundled in her arms as she beat a speedyvretreat.

Everyone was yards away from the building as instructed. Yaz, Ryan, and Graham waited with bated breath for the Doctor to get out.

The Doctor made it out, hurriedly putting on her coat and pocketing her sonic before diving onto the lawn of the facility.

In a flash, it exploded, windows shattering and flames devoting everything.

"I better get a pension for this." A former employee sighed. Dusting herself off, the Doctor squinted as she caught her breath.

"I know people, mate. I'll put in a word." She winked.

Time passed and everyone left. Emergency crews came and left until only four people were left. The flames smoldered until nothing was left but ash and debris. There was no sign of the Rani's TARDIS.

"Do you think it got destroyed too?"

"Not likely. It takes more than that to destroy a TARDIS. A lot more. I Just hope we don't see him any time soon. "

X

In an unknown time, in an unknown place, a metamorphosis occurred. Having escaped to some far off place and era, A Tardis opened its doors to give birth. Professor O' Mara did not survive the explosion unscathed but managed to get into his ship. No. Her ship. With his last breath glowing like starlight, the professor returned once more to familiar ground, in a new form. An Indian women awoke in tattered masculine clothes, lab coat singed and stained with blood. Her hands glowed with embers if rejuvenating energy.

The queen was dead once more. Long live the queen. Long live the Rani.

Hey! I actually have a fic this month. Sorry for being busy. Been doing Inktober and working on other things

Life things. Adulting and all that. Things still need to be done but I made some progress.

Anyway, time to return to a beloved well of mine: Doctor Who.

I had the ideas and concepts in my mind for some time, ever since we first met Missy. And then, when we got the lovely Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, those ideas only strengthened. I had several but let them fall to the wayside, especially once I focused on other projects. MHA really atevup a lot of my creative time (and still pulls me back in, lol.)

So when I found out there was a 13th Doctor Zine accepting applications, I slowly got to work. There was no rush, so I picked at it a bit. I had to edit it down a bit in the end to fit a word limit, but I had "finished".

Sadly, that Zibe was shelved due to lack if interest. However, as a silver lining, there are other zines I might get accepted into.

Besides, now I get to expand on things and flesh them out a little more.

I worry still that this came out rushed and would benefit from being more than a one shot, but honestly, it feels good to get this out. Whether people read this or not remains to be seen, as does whether or not this would have benefited from more time and work.

But for now, I hope you all enjoyed my return to the Whoniverse.

PS. I hope I managed to strike some tension in this shirt story and that the little nods and references don't completely take you out if the story. I also hope the ending wasn't too easy.

But if I failed, I will just come back and try again. :)


End file.
